Rohit Sharma was dismissed for a duck against Punjab Kings© BCCI/Sportzpics
Given the task of chasing down targets of over 200 runs in two consecutive matches, Mumbai Indians stepped up and delivered, creating a new ‘record’ in the T20 league. While Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, and Tim David have all returned to peak form, the same can’t be said about MI skipper Rohit Sharma. The Hitman does find himself in the line of fire over repeated failures at the top of the batting order. But, former Australia star Tom Moody is seeing Rohit in more of an MS Dhoni-like role where the Hitman also acts as a mentor.
“It is a concern, but I suppose from Mumbai Indians’ point of view of Ishan Kishan, that was another concern leading into this game (PBKS vs MI). Both openers have been short of runs. That’s ticked off, he looks like he is up and running and flying,” Moody told the broadcaster after MI took on PBKS on Wednesday.
Moody drew similarities between the roles Dhoni and Rohit are playing for their respective franchises. Much like Dhoni, Moody feels Rohit brings a lot on the table as a captain, and hence, his poor run of form with the bat isn’t as big a concern as it should be.
“The next one is Rohit Sharma. When you have batting depth of quality, that MI have, you can be patient with someone like Rohit Sharma because of the value that he brings to the table as captain. You look at the value that MS Dhoni has had for CSK. He has only had a couple of impacts with the bat and that’s purely because he is sitting back in the batting order.
“There is more to Rohit Sharma than the batsman. It’s the leader, it’s the calm and successful mind. He is a multiple championship-winning captain,” the former Australia star added.
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